Effects of graphic organizers on high school science students' collaborative production and presentation of hypermedia research projects

This document describes an empirical study of a theoretical model learning environment for secondary science education that uses technology as a resource for bringing about better learning. The model learning environment is a student-group collaborative design and preparation of a hypermedia research project and an accompanying oral presentation of the group's findings. The specific aspect of the model that was studied was the relationship between the use of a graphic organizer and the quality of a student constructed hypermedia document.; The investigator first used this model in a pilot project at a public high school in the Southeastern U.S. Informal observation suggested that the few student groups that chose to use a graphic organizer seemed to produce higher quality projects, compared to most student groups who did not use this tool. The investigator was reminded of a statement in a textbook by David Jonassen (1996), a major researcher in the field of instructional technology, who stated that the use of a graphic organizer can help students conceptualize research projects. The investigator decided to examine this observation empirically with high school Biology students.; An important dependent measure was the student production of a hypermedia web document. Each student group was assigned a phylum of livings things to investigate. Each group was given a different phylum assignment, so that no two groups within a class studied the same material. The experimental student groups were required to use a computer-based graphic organizer to produce graphic maps of the planned website for their assigned phylum. The control groups did not produce graphic maps. All student groups produced websites that examined the characteristics, functions, structures, and sub-groups of their assigned phylum.; The hypothesis for this study, that the use of a graphic organizer would enhance the quality of high school science student performance in the collaborative production and presentation of hypermedia research projects, was not supported by the analysis of dependent measure data. The results of the study did provide anecdotal data pertinent to the practical use of technology to improve secondary science education. These data are presented, as are suggestions for future research.